Local Buses Must Pay for Vehicle Insurance in Mexico

Local bus companies running excursions to Chetumal, Cancun and other destinations within the state of Quintana Roo are required to purchase vehicle insurance in order for them to traverse carriageways in neighboring Mexico. The new condition came into effect earlier this month after a yearlong delay by Mexican authorities. While the municipal government of Chetumal is in favor of waiving insurance and other permits to attract business from this side of the border, the federal government says that Belizeans must pay for insurance if Mexican motorists are mandated by law to do so. It’s a requirement, says Minister of Transport Edmond Castro, that is long in the making.

On the Phone: Edmond ‘Clear the Land’ Castro, Minister of Transport

“For a while now we have been working on a memorandum of understanding and we signed that, I think, last year. The Mexicans put it off a year before they enacted the memorandum. It was supposed to be August fifteenth. Basically, the Mexicans are saying that the bus operators need to purchase insurance to traverse on their highways. This is something that has been going on back and forth between the municipal body of Chetumal, the federal and the state, the federales and the state police, that it’s not fair for the Mexicans to have to be paying insurance to traverse their highways but the Belizeans come across with a blank sheet without any kind of insurance. The municipal body of Chetumal dehn noh mind di bus operators dehn go een yoh know because they are bringing commerce and Belizeans to buy at their shops and so it will affect their bottom line which is dollars and cents. But the federales are saying that they need to have insurance, so at this point they are just asking for the bus operators to purchase insurance. They are not even requiring them to buy a road service permit to traverse the highway. When the ADO bus, for example, comes to Belize to pick up passengers, the ADO bus must have valid insurance in Belize. Two: they must purchase a road service permit which they comply with; it’s the law of the land. But on the other hand, the Belizean buses, if they purchase the insurance then they can go into Mexico. I spoke with two of the operators, Morales and Silva which told me that they went in and they are trying to deal with the purchasing of insurance in Mexico, so that they can take their buses.”

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